The mother of one was held for six days before suddenly being released at the British Consulate in Milan.

The words of model Chloe Ayling's lawyer after a man from the Black Country was jailed in Italy for kidnapping her and holding her captive for six days.

Lukasz Herba, 30, was sentenced by an Italian court after luring the 20-year-old to a fake photoshoot in Milan, drugging her with ketamine, placing her in a suitcase, and driving her to a farmhouse in Piedmont.

Herba denied guilt throughout the trial, and claimed that Ayling agreed to the scheme to boost her career.

The 30-year-old threatened to auction her on the internet while trying to extort £230,000 from her agent Phil Green.

Adrian Sington, who represents Chloe, said: "This has been an incredible burden on her shoulders for the past year in the face of media criticism of her motivation and this is vindication - her story is true".

Investigators said the behaviour she exhibited during her capture was consistent with the effects of the drug.

Police say he demanded a quarter of a million pounds to stop a human trafficking auction for Chloe, hosted on porn sites on the dark web.

Mr Sington said: "Let's not forget she was bundled into a suitcase, injected with ketamine in the boot of a auto, and thought she was going to die".

In August 2017 model Chloe Ayling went to what she believed was a photo shoot in Milan and instead was kidnapped and nearly sold into the sex slavery.

Ayling said she never tried to escape - not even when Herba took her into a store to buy shoes - because she was terrified, believing his assertion that he was part of a bigger Romanian criminal gang that had eyes on her constantly.

Herba´s brother Michal Herba was arrested in the United Kingdom in August 2017 in connection with the crime and faces extradition to Italy.

He eventually alleged that Ayling had gone with him willingly - a claim Ayling strenuously denied - and that she was complicit in the plan all along.

In his closing arguments, Storari noted that Herba had invested at least 10,000 euros (A$15,503) in the kidnapping, taking into account real estate rentals and travel.

During closing arguments, Herba's lawyer cited an email she received from a film producer, who pointed out that Ayling's story closely matched the plot of an American movie titled "By Any Means", released about eight weeks before the 2017 kidnapping. He said it was unrealistic that Herba would have done so only to get ransom money through a young woman without any means. According to the Sun, Herba was also ordered to pay £60,000 damages to Chloe for what happened.

"This has been an incredible burden on her shoulders for the a year ago in the face of media criticism of her motivation and this is vindication - her story is true", he said. "It's hard if you're being painted in the press as a liar, and now she's able to say, 'I know it's a weird story, but it's a true one'".

RELATED NEWS

Canada looks to ride out Trump trade storm
On Saturday, the summit's second and final day, President Trump left early and took to Twitter to praise Canada, seemingly leaving the country on positive terms. 6/13/2018

US Toddlers Are Getting Too Much Sugar Too Early
Past studies have pointed towards breakfast cereals, cakes and desserts, sugary drinks, yogurt and candy as the biggest culprits. The government does not have guidelines for daily recommended limits for added sugar for children under the age of two. 6/13/2018

Merkel on tightrope over disputed migrant policy
According to Deutsche Welle , Mr Seehofer said: "I have a responsibility for this country, namely to steer and maintain order". Merkel said that Trump would probably retaliate by implementing new tariffs on German vehicles. 6/13/2018

Intel reckons it'll have a discrete GPU out by 2020
It's been decades since AMD and Intel last collaborated, but pressure from Nvidia has the two chip giants teaming up once again. Koduri now serves as Intel's chief architect and SVP of the newly created Core and Visual Computing Group. 6/13/2018